The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-171130 filed on Jun. 7, 2000 is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a tool pot for a tool magazine for removably holding a plurality of tools.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, in a tool magazine for a machine tool such as a machining center, a plurality of tool pots are supported on an outer periphery of a magazine disc that is indexically rotated, and a tool is inserted into a holding aperture formed in each of the tool pots. A key protruding from an opening end face of the holding aperture then engages a key groove formed in the tool, and the tool is removably held in the tool pot while being stopped from rotation. A tool to be used next is unloaded from the magazine disc at a tool unloading position and swiveled by 90xc2x0 to be parallel a rotational axis of the tool with a spindle of the machine tool. The tool held in the tool pot and a tool hold in the spindle are simultaneously exchanged by an automatic tool changer
As shown in FIG. 1, a main body 5 of such a tool pot 1 has previously been molded from a phenolic resin. Because the phenolic resin is not great in impact strength, a metal key member 2 is fastened by means of a screw 3 to the outer peripheral face at an opening end of a holding aperture 4 formed in the main body 5, and a key portion 6 of the key member 2 protrudes outside of an opening end face 7 of the holding aperture 4.
In a case that the metal key member 2 is fastened to the tool pot 1 by the screw 3, the overall man-hour of assembling increases, and the head of the screw 3 causes wear to in a resinous guide plate for guiding the tool pot 1. The tool pot 1 is thick in a radial direction as a whole because of the necessity to increase rigidity. This makes it impossible to reduce its weight sufficiently. Also, because the phenolic resin is a thermosetting resin, the tool pot 1 cannot be recycled once it has become unusable due to wear.
The invention has been made to solve the problems stated above. It is an object of the invention to provide a tool pot that is lightweight and recyclable.
In order to solve the aforementioned problems, the invention provides a tool pot that is used for a tool magazine of a machine tool to attachablely hold a tool, wherein a holding aperture for holding the tool is formed in a main body of the tool pot. The main body of the tool pot is formed of a glass-fiber reinforced thermoplastic material composed of a thermoplastic resin containing a glass fiber.
Because the main body of the tool pot is formed of a glass-fiber reinforced thermoplastic material composed of a thermoplastic resin containing a glass fiber, it is possible to provide a tool pot that is lightweight and recyclable.
A tool pot according to another aspect of the invention comprises a main body having a holding aperture for holding a tool and a key that is disposed on an opening end face of the holding aperture and that engages a key groove formed in the tool to stop rotation of the tool. The main body and the key are integrally molded from a glass-fiber reinforced thermoplastic material composed of a thermoplastic resin containing a glass fiber.
Because the aforementioned construction eliminates the necessity to fasten the metal key member, it is possible to manufacture the key easily and at a low cost. Further, when the head of the screw for fastening the key member moves along the resinous guide plate for guiding the tool pot, no wear is caused.